DC’s Most Eye-Catching Rendering in 2019

• December 20, 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

It's that time of year again when UrbanTurf reflects on some of DC’s most interesting real estate topics from the last 12 months. This week, we refresh your memory on some of the best, most intriguing and most peculiar things we came across throughout 2019. Enjoy.

Although a new project planned at Union Market may have offered the most striking design concept in DC this year, it was a rendering for a proposed project in Trinidad which perhaps raised the most eyebrows.

Urbanico Realty Group enlisted industrial designer Karim Rashid and his firm Kurv Architecture to design a 37-unit building slated for 1200 Bladensburg Road NE (map). The rendering for the resulting design inspired a number of reactions from UrbanTurf readers when it debuted last month, with one commenter comparing the building to the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed MLK Library.

While the building design may seem unusual for DC, it may be tame (and is certainly very linear) in comparison to Rashid's other building designs, many of which combine bright accent colors with abstract shapes for windows and massing. As for the cosmopolitan buildings that surround the newly proposed development, Urbanico managing partner Isaac Pinto said they were a purely aesthetic choice for the rendering.

"We wanted the project to function as a catalyst for Bladensburg Road's next evolutionary step as we see it, but also to show our firm DNA in the best way possible, and I believe the two are not so different," Pinto shared. "Karim was a natural choice to design this project for us. His democratic and environmentally responsible design philosophy answered our checklist perfectly. Our goal was to create a one of a kind, innovative building while using environmentally sustainable materials and methods, and still be able to make the end product affordable and accessible to a wider audience as possible."

UrbanTurf's 2019 Year in Review 

• The Craziest Place to Spend the Night in 2019 
• The DC University With the Most Development Plans on the Horizon
• The 5 Priciest Home Sales in the DC Area in 2019
• The Best Listing of the Year (For the Mere Mortal)
• Most Prevalent New Neighborhood Amenity in 2019
• The Most Striking Development Pitched in DC in 2019
• The Best Listing of the Year (For the Well-Paid Lobbyist)
• The Most Impactful Regulation in DC in 2019 That Can't Get Finalized
• The Best Apartment Views in DC in 2019
• The Best Apartment of 2019 For the Aspiring Muckraker

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dcs-most-eye-catching-rendering-in-2019/16225